New York Times 2007 Year of Ideas

Braille Tattoos
Airborne Wind Generators
Digital search parties

The Edible Martini

Annually The New York Times Magazine publishes The Year in Ideas. The December 8 Magazine contains 70 ideas ranging from brilliant to quirky. Clearly it demonstrates "What is Possible"

http://www.nytimes.com/indexes/2007/12/08/magazine/index.html

Ways to SAVE AND GENERATE ENERGY from The New York Times Magazine's Year in Ideas.

http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=3a9e514db4759318dac57e8e5fd5462862c424ed

Will we need Two Licenses?

The Flying Car - deliveries 2009

Terrafugia has solved the last sticky issue - automatic folding wings. I am worried about the cars blind spots!

http://www.terrafugia.com/ They even have a flight simulator on the website.

Thanks to http://www.gizmodo.com/ for the introduction. "Gizmodo, the gadget guide. So much in love with shiny new toys, it's unnatural."

From Samuel Goldwin

“It's absolutely impossible, but it has possibilities”
(Polish born American movie Producer and Founder of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1924. 1882-1974)

www.thinkexist.com

Is it Possible to Redesign the Wrench - Simply

Data and images provided by IDSA
Business & Industrial Products
Revolutionized Wrench
Design Credit:
Proprietary Technologies

"The Revolutionized Wrench provides exceptional
user ergonomics, comfort, control and torque through an innovative design that offers a 500 percent larger surface area over traditional wrenches. The wrench heads and outer handles are positioned perpendicular to each other to provide maximum grip area when applying force. However, there is no planar rotation in the wrench handle to interfere with grip or comfort. In addition, the outer handles have a thin profile to ensure the accessibility of each wrench head to a work piece. Professional users will particularly benefit from this new ergonomic design by experiencing less repetitive stress and fatigue problems. In addition to seven patents, the Revolutionized Wrench has received numerous industry awards and much media attention, including a commendation from the National Arthritis Foundation.

Please find more similar at
<http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/07/0720_IDEA/source/6.htm>

Competing in Computers - Again

Go to an Apple store. You'll know it by following the teenagers. Think of all the computer store failures. Dell and Gateway invested millions and withdrew.

These stores or should we say, destinations, are a hub of activity and sales. Visit one and you'll see Apples original school approach alive and well. You'll see staff, who are actually excited about working there. You'll see plenty of people buying.

These are electric places and demonstrate "What is Possible"

Thank You Viewimages.com

Curiosity and Creativity

http://www.mypersonalbrilliance.com/curiosity/

This an interesting website, with a interesting guests

The path to Personal Brilliance is:

Awareness, Curiosity, Focus and Initiative

There are many pod casts and the recent guest "The Name Tag Guy" spoke on Curiosity. He suggests every day
"Ask Yourself 100 Questions"
"Ask Yourself one question over and over and over"
"Asking People Unexpected Questions"

"Self Help is oversold" Sometimes, but not always

Build in US - Ask Dell?

It is Possible to Build Consumer Electronics in the US!


"Pleased, but Never Satisfied"

Dell is every bit as hard on itself as it is on the folks who make its disk drives and batteries. For proof, just look inside Dell's newest U.S. factory, the Morton L. Topfer Manufacturing Center (dubbed TMC) in north Austin. Along with its sister factory in Nashville, it's the only major computer-assembly plant still located in the United States. IBM, HP, Gateway, and Apple have all offshored their operations to manufacturers overseas. Taiwanese PC makers might be cheaper, but Dell is determined to control its manufacturing...

Dell has brought a maniacal focus to shaving minutes off the time it takes to assemble and ship a computer. By studying videotapes of "the build," as they call it, factory managers have slashed in half the number of times a computer is touched by workers. They've counted the screws in a PC and redesigned it so that the major components -- hard drive, graphics card, CD player -- simply snap in place.

In a blur of synchronized movements, a veteran builder can piece together a Dell OptiPlex or Dimension PC in three minutes. The software burn and testing, which is powered by Dell servers with enough bandwidth to download the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in eight seconds, takes several hours, depending on the amount of customization that's required. The entire process, from the time the order is taken to when the finished PC exits the factory, is wrapped up in four to eight hours.

While the TMC takes up less than half the space of its predecessor, it boasts three times the output. And even that's not good enough. Dell is always on a mission to outdo itself, and the factory is expected to increase its production by some 30% by year's end.

Full article can be found at: Fast Company Issue 88 November 2004 Page 86 By: Bill Breen

Manufacturing in US not Dead

Contrary to common misconception, the U.S. remains the world's top manufacturer. A World Bank report put total manufacturing output at $1.7 trillion in 2001, the most recent reported period. That's almost as much as Japan and Germany combined, both a distant second at $900 billion each.
.
The U.S. had been steadily losing factory employment since its last peak of 17.64 million in March 1998. Since then, the factory sector has shed 3.1 million jobs, or 17.6 percent of its work force.
Yet the job decline in manufacturing is universal due to technology driven productivity gains, noted JP Morgan Chase economist James Glassman. China and Mexico also are losing manufacturing jobs due to automation, he said.
"The story is one of automation -- not de-industrialization," agreed Sheldon.
A turnaround?

Stay Up Late!

Sleeping in for Art's Sake

Complain about those night old neighbors, and you may be just suppressing creative genius. That's the implication, the new Italian study showing that evening oriented people form better on tests of creating. Then morning difference could be linked to the way the brain synchronizes the body time by nocturnal types advantage is unclear. But researchers suggest that living outside the clocks conventions Spurs originality.


Seed March 2007 http://www.seedmagazine.com/
Science is Culture

They will determine What is Possible?

Millennials - Start Appreciating 82 Million of Them


Who are 'Millennials'?
"Millennials" is one term sociologists use to designate those youths raised in the sensory-inundated environment of digital technology and mass media at the millennium. Unlike Gen X, which referred generally to people born in the 1960s and 1970s, this generation has yet to carry a name popularized by mainstream culture. Also known as "Echo Boomers," as the children of Baby Boomers, millennials were born from the 1980s on.


Millennials on Millennials: www.fururemajority.com

Future Majority: "Political beat reporting on the progressive youth movement."


Boomers About Millennials: Millennials Rising: The Next Great Generation Howe and Strauss

Honestly Frank

How often have you asked someone a meaningful question and you can see in their eyes they are rushing to come up with an answer. They are not thinking about the question?

One of the most embarrassing moments in my career was at a Fortune 100 Business Plan meeting when I said to the Chairman "Honestly Frank" I was standing in front of 20 corporate executives and he lambasted me for 20 minutes

You are not listening to my question! You interrupt me before I finish! You aren't paying enough attention to even know if it was rhetoric! The best ... "Honestly Frank! Am I to assume when you don't say honestly your lying?"

From then on I practiced writing down the question, to stop me from talking, and to think about the question before responding

Change is Possible!

MAGIC PILLS

Change Management

While there are no Magic Pills, there are techniques you can learn. This is the best source of easy reminders


"The friendly text and colorful, contemporary illustrations in this book, part of Chronicle’s Positive Business series, render even big changes more approachable" Reed Busienss Information

www.lamarsh.com

World trends

• 100 Million Chinese Families will reach European income levels by 2020
• 12% of US newlyweds last year met online
• Increase in the tax burden needed to maintain current benefit level for future generations? Germany 90%, Japan 175%
• What if every newborn in America received $6,000 as seed money for college, a first house or a business? What would be the ramifications? Would the cost be significant?
  
  There is a reason Harvard Business Review and McKinsey are thought leaders. These are from their Trends 2006/7 Articles. Step back from day to day and play with one of these 30 ideas. Both or either are worth subscribing to.
  
  http://www.harvardbusinessonline.org/
  http://www.mckinsey.com/

What is Possible - Possibleness